


C is for Catfish

by zhangjunftw



Category: NINE PERCENT (Band), 偶像练习生 | Idol Producer (TV)
Genre: Catfishing, M/M, catfishing is bad kids don't do it, fuck sierra burgess, light angst? like miniscule angst, mostly fluffy zhangjun, zhengting chaoze xinchun bufan are very briefly mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 23:02:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17272808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zhangjunftw/pseuds/zhangjunftw
Summary: zhangjing gets catfished.





	C is for Catfish

When he had first started using the dating app, Chaoze had warned him to be careful: "Don't bring back a serial killer, I don't want to have to be stuck scrubbing your blood off the floor."

 

"Weren't you the one who kept pestering me about meeting new people and to stop 'moping around looking like a kicked puppy'?" Zhangjing asked dryly.

 

"Don't use my own words against me, You Zhangjing," Chaoze said. "Not everyone is who they say they are. You never know whether the person you think you're talking to is actually a bot or someone masquerading as someone else."

 

Zhangjing had been careful, but apparently not careful enough, he thought as he looked up at the familiar face - the same face as the profile picture of the man he had been talking to for the last month - "I'm sorry, but I don't believe we've met before." the man said finally, clearly confused.

 

"Aren't you Zhang Junjie?" Zhangjing asked, a feeling of dread starting to settle in his stomach as he reached for his phone and opened the application. He wasn't wrong, it really was his face in the picture. The man's face darkened as he looked at the profile, lips pursing into a displeased frown.

 

"No, that's not me." he said.

 

"Oh." Zhangjing swallowed, trying to ignore the numb feeling in his chest. God, this was embarrassing, he had just called out to this stranger in public and now it turned out that the guy that he had been talking to for the past month really had been too good to be true. And now this handsome stranger knew that he had been dumb enough to fall for a catfish, oh my god, could the ground just open up and swallow him already? "Well, sorry for bothering you, I guess I should be going -"

 

"Hey," The handsome stranger hesitated, like he was trying to find the correct words to say. "Are you okay?"

 

"Uh..." Zhangjing let out a laugh that sounded shaky even to his own ears. "Just a little in shock, that's all. I'll be fine, don't worry." he said, trying to ignore the prickling feeling in his eyes.

 

He gave Zhangjing a look that showed that he definitely was not buying any of what Zhangjing had just said. Zhangjing tried not to squirm under his calculating gaze. Just as he started to wonder if he should just walk away: "Do you drink coffee?"

 

Zhangjing blinked at him. "Uh. I. Yes?" he replied, confused at the sudden question.

 

He nodded. "There's a café down the street, a friend of mine said that they make some pretty good coffee." he offered.

 

Zhangjing stared at him, this boy who couldn't be much older than him, who dressed like he had just stepped off the cover of a magazine or the pages of a fashion catalogue - clothes that no broke college student could afford, not without busting their savings account and eating instant noodles for dinner for a month: "I don't even know your name, how can I be sure you're not a serial killer?"

 

He laughed - a laugh so loud that the auntie walking on the other side of the road shot a suspicious look over at them - "Well," he bit his lip in an attempt to stifle his laughter. "I could say the same thing about you, mister. But, if I was a serial killer, I wouldn't be asking you to go to a café with other people in it, would I? I wouldn't be a very good serial killer if I invited you to a place with so many witnesses."

 

"I suppose that's a good point." Zhangjing hummed, noting the cute little dimple in his cheek that appeared when he smiled. That just wasn't fair, he thought, to have such good looks and also have dimples?

 

His name was Lin Yanjun, Zhangjing learned later, and he was working as a part-time model (no surprise there): "I'm currently majoring in photography." Yanjun explained.

 

The profile picture that 'Zhang Junjie' had used was from Yanjun's Instagram profile. "It's from a photoshoot I had with this magazine a few months ago," Yanjun said. "So it's something that anyone could have gotten easily if they did a google search of my name, or they might have looked up the magazine."

 

"I still can't believe I didn't realise he was a catfish." Zhangjing groaned, ducking his head in embarrassment.

 

"Don't beat yourself up over it, catfishing is a pretty big problem nowadays. A lot of people get tricked, even when they're careful." Yanjun said.

 

"Has this happened to you before?" Zhangjing asked. "People using your photos to catfish other people, I mean."

 

"Well, no, not that I knew of," Yanjun admitted. "It's definitely a shock to find out someone has been pretending to have my face. Although, with a face like mine, I suppose it's not surprising that other people would want to look like me." he joked, and Zhangjing rolled his eyes at his grin. No, Zhangjing was not about to admit that he agreed with Yanjun on how handsome he was - his ego didn't need any more feeding, he thought to himself.

 

"Anyway, thanks for making me feel better about this whole thing." Zhangjing said, smiling at him.

 

"Don't mention it," Yanjun replied. "It was nice meeting you, Zhangjing."

 

* * *

 

Three days after their first meeting, You Zhangjing spotted a familiar figure across the uni courtyard - he had only drank a single coffee this morning, none of the possibly dangerous caffeine concoctions that his roommate liked to brew during exams season, so it couldn't be a hallucination, but: "What are you doing here, Lin Yanjun?"

 

Yanjun's head shot up at the sound of his voice, looking just as shocked to see Zhangjing as he was to see him. "I -" he fumbled, barely managing to catch his pen before it fell to the ground. "I could ask you the same thing, You Zhangjing." he said. "I'm a student here. Photography major, remember?"

 

"You're kidding." Zhangjing deadpanned. "Economics major. How have I not seen you around this hellhole even once in the three years that I've been here?"

 

"How indeed." Yanjun muttered.

 

Zhangjing narrowed his eyes at him. How could he have missed a face like this among the crowd of students at uni? Even if the university was pretty huge, and there were quite a number of different schools - with a face like that, there was no way that not even a single person wouldn't have said something, and Zhangjing prided himself on knowing almost everything that happened in his university - not very difficult when you were friends with the likes of Zhu Zhengting, who was the university's gossip central.

 

Yet he hadn't even heard the slightest peep about Lin Yanjun before. How curious.

 

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Yanjun asked, interrupting his thoughts.

 

"Are you sure you're not a serial killer?"

 

"Wha - we went over this already, You Zhangjing, why do you keep thinking I'm a serial killer??"

 

Apparently for most of his classes, Yanjun tended to wear a facemask or he sat at the back of the class - so either most of the student body hadn't noticed his face because of that, or no one had enough brain cells after classes to process and appreciate his good looks (Yanjun's words, not Zhangjing's).

 

Zhangjing later finds out from Zhengting the real reason why he's never heard of Lin Yanjun: people have been talking about him, however, due to a slight misunderstanding, most of the student body think his name is Lin Yankai.

 

Zhengting is apologetic and promises to correct the mistake, Yanjun looks like he's torn between letting the floor swallow him whole and going out to hunt down Bu Fan for causing the whole misunderstanding in the first place, and Zhangjing just finds the whole thing hilarious.

 

"Lin Yankai." Yanjun groaned into his hands. "How the hell did he make that mistake?"

 

"On the bright side," Zhangjing finally managed to wheeze out after all his cackling. "At least this means that your handsomeness has been acknowledged by the other students."

 

It still doesn't stop Yanjun from shooting a glare in Bu Fan's direction when Zhengting points the tall boy out to him.

 

* * *

 

Now that Zhangjing realised Yanjun's existence, it was almost impossible to not notice the younger around university - on the courtyard, in the café down the street that half the student population frequented, he'd even stumbled on Yanjun taking photos in the gardens for a project.

 

Yanjun also tended to spend a lot of time in the library - but not for the reason most of the other students were there.

 

Zhangjing sighed as he let the door close quietly behind him, walking towards the table near the back of the library where a familiar figure was resting his head on the table, a folded up sweater as his pillow. Zhangjing tapped on the table lightly, taking the seat opposite Yanjun, who looked up at him sleepily.

 

"You know, if you're so tired, you should go back home and sleep." Zhangjing remarked, offering his cup of coffee.

 

"Yes, please, and thank you." Yanjun mumbled, gratefully accepting the coffee. He made a face at the bitter taste, and Zhangjing had to resist the urge to snicker at his apparent distaste. "Ever heard of sugar packets, Zhangjing?" he said dryly.

 

"Why, am I not sweet enough for you?" Zhangjing joked.

 

He definitely did not expect Yanjun to break into a coughing fit at his words. By the time his coughing had finally subsided, half of the students in the vicinity had shot dirty glances in their direction. "Wasn't expecting that," Yanjun coughed, looking everywhere but at Zhangjing. The flush on his cheeks still remained even after he passed the coffee back to Zhangjing. So he could dish it out but he couldn't take it himself, Zhangjing noted, fighting back from grinning like an idiot. The poor boy was embarrassed enough already, Zhangjing really shouldn't make him feel worse.

 

Although, Zhangjing did wonder just how red he could make Yanjun's face turn.

 

("Lin Yanjun, you're the telur to my roti. Without you, I kosong."

 

"You Zhangjing, I have no idea what you're saying. Not all of us have been to Malaysia, okay."

 

"Lin Yanjun, if you wanted to come home with me, all you had to do was ask."

 

"That's not what I meant and you know it!" Yanjun spluttered.)

 

* * *

 

"So, did you do anything about the, uh," Yanjun cleared his throat. "The reason why we met."

 

"You know, I'm never going to get any of my required reading done if you keep distracting me like this." Zhangjing said, glancing up from his notes to look at Yanjun.

 

The younger didn't look the least bit apologetic: "It's not like you're getting anything done anyway, you keep looking at your phone every five minutes."

 

"I don't need you disrespecting me like this." Zhangjing muttered, smacking Yanjun's slowly creeping hand away from his slice of cake. "If you wanted cake then you should have gotten a piece when the barista asked." Zhangjing said firmly when Yanjun pouted at him in fake hurt.

 

"As for that person," Zhangjing continued, pulling out his phone from his pocket. "I haven't replied to any of his messages since I met you." He said, eyes glancing over the numerous messages from that person, which were all along the similar lines of "why aren't you responding to me anymore".

 

"I don't know what I can say, or if I should respond at all." Zhangjing looked up at Yanjun's thoughtful expression, eyebrows knitted together as he considered something.

 

Zhangjing slipped his phone back into his pocket. "Anyway, I think I'd better eat my cake before it melts or you steal all of it." He said, quickly pulling the plate closer to him before Yanjun could take another chunk out of his cake. "Stealing a man's food while he's checking his phone, have you no honour, Lin Yanjun?"

 

"You snooze, you lose." Yanjun grinned cheekily. "You've got to take the opportunities when they come knocking, You Zhangjing."

 

Zhangjing rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath about a lack of respecting one's elders ("Okay, fine, _uncle_." "I am only one year older than you, you prick -"). He bit back the moan of delight as the taste of the cake enveloped his mouth; the glowing recommendation for the café's cakes was definitely not at all an overstatement, and any thoughts of forgiveness for Yanjun's stealing a bit of the cake slice is gone, because he's deprived Zhangjing of that one more bite of the glorious cake and that is unacceptable (especially considering how expensive the single slice of cake was. Zhangjing wants to sob thinking about it, because he could have bought a whole set meal at the cafeteria for that amount of money.)

 

Caught up in his thoughts of vengeance and so enraptured by the delicious cake, Zhangjing almost didn't hear the sound of a camera click. He glanced up to find Yanjun's camera pointed at him, the younger examining his latest photo with a soft smile on his face. "Did you just take a photo of me?" Zhangjing asked.

 

Yanjun nodded, still looking at the photo. "Opportunity knocked." Yanjun said simply, setting the camera aside. Zhangjing raised a questioning brow at the action: the last few times that Yanjun had taken his picture, Yanjun had always shown the photo to him after taking it.

 

"Not going to show me?" Zhangjing asked.

 

"You'll see it later." Yanjun said, picking up his fork again. "Don't worry, it's a nice picture."

 

"You'd better not be thinking of trying to steal more cake from me, Lin Yanjun."

 

"Not even if I say please?"

 

"...no."

 

(Zhangjing ended up giving him another bite anyway.)

 

* * *

 

"You know when you said I'd be able to see the photo later, I thought you meant that you were going to go back and edit it and stuff before showing it to me, not that you were going to post it on your Instagram." Zhangjing remarked, marveling at the number of likes on Yanjun's latest post.

 

Yanjun shrugged nonchalantly. "It's a nice photo." Zhangjing can't disagree, so he sighs and asks Yanjun to send him the photo so he can keep a copy for himself.

 

"Although the caption you put with the photo..." Zhangjing chuckled, looking at the words: "study date w @azorachin". He shook his head with a sigh, mentally preparing himself for all the second looks and laser eye glares he would probably be receiving upon stepping foot on campus grounds later.

 

"I should ask you to help me take my photos from now on, maybe I'll start actually looking good in photographs of me." Zhangjing joked.

 

"I knew that you had ulterior motives when you started hanging out with me." Yanjun fake grumbled, sounding not at all too unhappy about the prospect of being Zhangjing's personal cameraman.

 

"So," Yanjun continued. "Anything new from that person?"

 

Zhangjing shook his head. It had been a peaceful night, no notifications popping up on his screen reminding him that he had been catfished. In fact, Zhangjing thought, eyes narrowing at the timestamp of the last message, the messages stopped coming in soon after Yanjun had posted that picture of him on Instagram.

 

Zhangjing shot Yanjun an accusing look. "What were you saying earlier about ulterior motives, hm?" he said dryly.

 

"Guilty as charged." Yanjun offered a sheepish smile. "What better way to send a message than with a picture?" When Zhangjing didn't say anything, a flash of worry crossed Yanjun's face. "Are you angry?"

 

"Yes and no." Zhangjing grumbled. "You should have told me first before doing it."

 

"Oh." Yanjun scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "I'm sorry, I should have thought of that first."

 

"But," Zhangjing sighed, slipping his phone back into his bag. "It did work, so. I'm not angry, but you're still not off the hook."

 

(When Zhangjing stepped out of his lecture hall, he found Yanjun waiting outside, a cup of Zhangjing's favourite coffee in his hand.

 

"It really is a good picture," Yanjun said. "I would have posted it anyway."

 

"Yeah, well, you're a photography student, of course it's going to look good."

 

"Photography student or not, I can't take a nice picture if the subject matter itself isn't beautiful." 

 

"...okay, that was smooth. Do you use it on everyone you meet?"

 

"Just the ones I like." Yanjun grinned at him, and Zhangjing rolled his eyes, ignoring the butterflies in his stomach.)

 

* * *

 

_'Traffic jam - I'm going to be a bit late - wait for me'_

 

Zhangjing huffed, glaring at his phone screen and the message - he's willing to bet his left kidney that Yanjun had probably lost track of time again while taking his ridiculously long showers. How much did his water bills amount to, and how could he afford to pay them, he wondered.

 

Well, he thought, adjusting his backpack strap, might as well go find a seat to relax in while waiting for Lin Yanjun to come and grace the campus grounds.

 

He barely took two steps outside of the lecture hall before he was blocked by an unfamiliar figure. "Excuse me," Zhangjing muttered, but the stranger's arm shot out and grabbed Zhangjing's arm as he tried to walk past him.

 

"You Zhangjing," he said.

 

Zhangjing swallowed back the rising panic in his chest, there were other students around them, some of whom recognised Zhangjing, and had paused to stare at the two of them with wary looks in their eyes - he wouldn't be able to try anything funny, not here - right?

 

"Do I know you?" Zhangjing asked.

 

"It's me: Zhang Junjie." Zhangjing's eyes widened in shock, a surprised gasp slipping out as he regarded the person before him: so this was the person that he had been talking to for a good part of the last month.

 

He was slightly taller than Zhangjing, with a thin and angular face, small close-set eyes looking at him through a thick set of glasses.

 

He looked nothing like Lin Yanjun's perfection, but that didn't mean that he was completely unattractive - just different.

 

"Can we talk? Somewhere a little more private, maybe?" Junjie asked tentatively.

 

Zhangjing stared at him, at his shifting eyes that kept glancing around him nervously, the tense set of his shoulders: "No." Zhangjing said flatly. "Let go of my arm."

 

"Please, just let me explain -"

 

"Let go of me right now, or I swear, I will break your nose, Zhang Junjie." Zhangjing snapped, voice raised. Reluctantly, Junjie let go of his arm, after noticing more than a few pairs of eyes watching them.

 

"Zhangjing, I can explain - "

 

"Don't call me so casually. I don't know you. There is nothing to explain. Please leave me alone." Zhangjing said, turning around to leave. People were staring, and he just wanted to leave, get out of this uncomfortable situation, but then Junjie just had to go and open his mouth:

 

"So that's it? You're just going to pretend nothing happened between us because you met Mr Handsome Good Looks?" Junjie called. "I didn't realise you were such a shallow person, You Zhangjing, that you would just drop everything and act like a stranger just because you realised I'm not as good-looking as you thought I was."

 

Zhangjing stood there, frozen, barely registering the whispers of the crowd gathered around them as Junjie continued:  "Wasn't it you who said that it wasn't what someone looked like that mattered, that it's what's inside that counts?"

 

"You're right, I did say that." Zhangjing said, cutting off whatever filth had been about to come out of Junjie's mouth. It's clear from Junjie's expression that he can detect the sheer fury in Zhangjing's voice - Zhangjing's blood is boiling, he hasn't felt this angry in years, how dare Junjie show up here and try and manipulate the truth to garner pity for himself, _how dare he?_

 

"You'd better clear your ears and listen carefully to every single word I am about to say to you, Zhang Junjie, because I don't ever want to speak to you ever again in my life." Zhangjing continued, no longer caring about the crowd, no longer caring about ending things quietly: Junjie no longer deserved that kind of respect. If he wanted to blow things up then fine, two can play at that game.

 

"It's not because you're not as physically attractive that I am telling you to leave me alone, you dumb prick. It's because you lied to me about how you really looked for an entire month, and the only reason I found out about this was because I just so happened to meet Yanjun on the street and approached him thinking he was you." Zhangjing said. "Not once in the time we spoke to each other did you give me any indication whatsoever that you looked any different from your profile picture, you let me believe that that was what you looked like. The only reason I found out was because of sheer dumb luck."

 

"Now that you find out that I've discovered your little secret, you come out here and trespass on campus grounds, corner me after I come out of class, and you have the _balls_ to accuse me of dumping you because I'm a shallow person?" Zhangjing snapped. Junjie was starting to look uncomfortable, with more than a few people sending nasty looks at him.

 

"Let's make one thing absolutely clear here: I'm not dumping you because you don't look like a model. I'm dumping you because you lied to me, and I can't trust you - I don't know you, I don't know how much of what you've told me was the truth and I don't care to know right now. I don't want to know you at all."

 

"As for what's inside - I think the fact that you catfished me and your complete lack of remorse for it says plenty about your character, Zhang Junjie." Zhangjing said. "So, please never speak to me ever again, I hope I never see your face again - and if you _ever_ catfish anyone else with my friend's face again, Zhang Junjie, you'd better prepare yourself for a visit from the cops. Goodbye."

 

Having said all that he wanted to say, Zhangjing turned around. This time, Junjie didn't try to stop him, and Zhangjing walked out of the building, head held high, feeling a thousand times lighter.

 

* * *

Zhangjing walked out onto the courtyard just in time to see Yanjun's car turn into the parking lot. The car stopped, the window rolling down to reveal Yanjun's bewildered face as Zhangjing ran over to his car. "Where's the fire?" Yanjun asked as Zhangjing climbed into the front seat.

 

"Let's just get out of here." Zhangjing said, chucking his bag into the back seat. Yanjun gave him a weird look, but started driving anyway.

 

"Did something happen just now?" Yanjun asked.

 

"Zhang Junjie showed up."

 

"He _what?!_ " Yanjun slammed down on the brakes hard, head whipping around to stare at Zhangjing in shock and disbelief.

 

"Yanjun, you're blocking the road - " Zhangjing winced as the car behind them let out an indignant honk. Yanjun swore under his breath, moving his car reluctantly back into the parking lot.

 

Once Yanjun had parked the car properly, he turned to Zhangjing: "What did he do?"

 

"Tried to tarnish my image and humiliate me in front of everyone by calling me a shallow person who only cared about a person's physical attractiveness after I told him to leave me alone." Zhangjing replied, watching as Yanjun's expression grew more and more murderous.

 

"Tell me he's still on campus grounds."

 

"Lin Yanjun, you have noodle arms, don't you even think about starting a fight with someone else." Zhangjing said dryly. "Anyway, I handled it."

 

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you insult these guns of mine. What do you mean by you handled it?"

 

"I called him a dumb prick and gave him this long speech about all the real reasons why I was dumping him, in front of about half the business school." Zhangjing laughed.

 

"Looks like you really turned the tables on him, huh." Yanjun said, a proud smile on his face. "I'm sorry I wasn't there." he said apologetically. "Both because I would have loved to punch him in the face and because I wish I could have seen the look on his face after you were done dragging him."

 

"Oh, don't worry about that. I think I saw Huang Xinchun recording the whole thing in the crowd - he's part of Zhengting's friend group, remember him?" Zhangjing asked. Yanjun nodded. "There's no way Zhengting won't spread that video, and if he's really a student here, well. Come tomorrow morning, everyone will know who he is and what he's done." Zhangjing said, letting out a sigh of relief. 

 

"Well, I think this calls for a celebration." Yanjun announced. "Any ideas on where we should go?"

 

Zhangjing looked Yanjun, at this beautiful handsome boy who had been a complete stranger to him a few weeks ago, who had somehow, in the span of those few weeks, become such a constant presence in Zhangjing's life. Even if this entire experience of finding out he had gotten catfished had sucked - at least he had managed to meet Lin Yanjun.

 

"Let's go back to that café, the one with the great coffee." Zhangjing said finally. "I still need to try the cheesecake that you mentioned last time."

 

Yanjun flashed a grin at him, starting the car.

 

**Author's Note:**

> come talk to me on twitter! : https://mobile.twitter.com/zhangjunftw


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